Instructional video tutorial for GEOG 123 research assignment

Course: Geography 123: Introduction to Globalization

Faculty: Dr. Matt Sparke and Dr. Joe Hannah

Librarian: Amanda Hornby, Geography Librarian

The Research Guide and Tutorial Redesign: Amanda collaborated with Geography faculty Dr. Matt Sparke and Dr. Joe Hannah to better support students with the final Geography 123 research assignment. The final assignment requires students to research in-depth information about a transnational corporation, including corporate earnings, labor practices, company history, scholarly background research on issues related to the transnational corporation, and more. Initially, Amanda created a basic online research guide to support the course research and gave a short presentation during the class lecture. The results of the librarian’s early involvement in Geography 123 resulted in an overwhelming amount of student consultation requests and emails. In fall 2010, determined to support student research needs more fully, Amanda collaborated with Dr. Hannah and Dr. Sparke to completely revise the class research guide so that it connected students directly to relevant research sources in the class guide. In place of a class lecture, Amanda proposed creating a Geography 123 video tutorial instead, an idea that was met with enthusiasm by the faculty. Amanda created a course-integrated online tutorial, guiding students step-by-step through the research sources needed for the course research assignment. Results: In appreciation of the redesign of the Geography 123 guide and the tutorial creation, Dr. Matt Sparke emailed Amanda the following: “This material is TOTALLY BRILLIANT!!! It’s such a gift to the students and to me and the TAs too. We are all in your debt. I was going to invite you to speak to the class again, but the video seems to touch on all the key points so well and so efficiently already. Indeed the video must have taken you quite a bit of time. It's so professional.” Since implementing the new course research guide and tutorial, Amanda has had much more efficient student consultations, and students report less difficulty completing their final research projects.